“The bullet hit the victim in the back, killing her instantly,” officer Hernadez told me as I arrived at the crime scene. The murder happened at a circus called Wonderland. The victim’s body was found about an hour after the homicide. Hernadez immediately closed the whole circus so that we could investigate.
A bullet killed the victim from behind, which destroyed her lungs. Based on her ID card, she was 38. Her name was Mary Casfield. Hernadez had already questioned some people, but there were no witnesses. A few people said they heard a gunshot around midnight, but nobody saw anyone suspicious around the crime scene.
“Any suspects?” I asked Hernadez. Meanwhile, another police officer was writing his report about the incident. There were at least a dozen of us there.
“It could’ve been anyone, Damford,” Hernadez responded, searching for a cigarette in his pocket. He finally found a pack. “Do you want one?”
No, I put it down a few months ago,” I said.
“Oh, alright, sorry,” he then tried to search for a lighter. “We have to speak with everyone working at the circus. The lieutenant said he knew the victim, and she has a husband and a son, who is 12, I think.”
“We should inform them about the passing of the victim.”
“They already know about it. We’ll interrogate them too. The entrance guard said the victim arrived at 8 pm with her son and husband. They are the primary suspects.”
“You mean the husband?”
Well, yeah, the kid isn’t the killer, probably. Although, I saw stranger things happen…” he lighted his cigar. He was a short, bald, middle aged man with tons of experience. I’m sure he has seen many strange cases since starting his job.
“Where are they now?”
“At the police station waiting for you to question them, probably,” Hernadez smiled. “Feel free to go back there. Come back here after you spoke with them. I’m gonna have a talk with the workers here until then.”
I went back to the station in a police car. When I arrived, one of my coworkers gave me some information about the victim’s family. They were waiting for me in my office. The kid, Jeremy Casfield was still crying, understandably. He had red hair, just like his parents. His father, Charles Casfield was sitting there, looking at me as I sat down in my chair. He had a large beard. He looked stressed, but I didn’t see tears on his face.
“Sorry for your loss, Mr. Casfield. I’m officer Damford,” I introduced myself. “I’ll be very short, just a few questions, and we’re done here.”
“Thank you, Mr. Damford,” Charles, the victim’s husband said. “I’ll try to answer your questions, but I still can’t process what happened, so please forgive me if I can’t remember everything.”
“You arrived at 8 pm with your son and wife,” I said. “What happened after that?”
Charles was silent for a few seconds. He looked worried and tired.
“We were watching the main attraction, Gary, the clown,” he responded. He avoided eye contact with me, and instead looked down at the table. “When it was over, we came outside. She told us to wait for her as she walked away from us. That was the last time we saw her alive. Sorry, it’s still hard for us.”
The kid started crying even more, so I gave him water. Charles’ description of the events wasn’t too detailed. I felt like his confession was missing some very important details, or I should say he was lying to me.
“Is this what happened?” I looked at Jeremy, the little kid.
“Ye… yes, sir,” he responded with his eyes full of tears.
“Okay, you can go home for now. We’ll inform you as soon as we find out what happened.”
“Can we get the body back?” Charles asked. “Just to… give her a proper funeral she deserves.”
“The body is under investigation,” I answered. “It may take a few days. Thank you for your understanding!”
After I finished writing my report with the little information Charles provided, I drove back to the Wonderland circus. Luckily, Hernadez was still there. I approached him.
“Gary, the clown. It’s the only name I’ve got from the victim’s husband,” I said. “He’s still a suspect.”
“What about the kid?”
“He’s still shocked, understandably. He was crying the whole time.”
“Yeah, as expected,” Hernadez said. “It’s unfortunate to lose a parent when you are this young. Still better than losing the child, however. It’s not an unusual thing at the circus.”
“Have kids gone missing at the circus?” I raised my eyebrows. “When? I’ve never heard about it.”
“Of course you haven’t,” Hernadez laughed. “The Wonderland won’t let the media speak about things like this. That would kill the whole circus. As far as the public knows, no one went missing here. They probably won’t know about this murder either.”
“But that’s not right! Everyone should know about it if the circus is really that dangerous!”
“Don’t worry, Damford. If the killer is a circus worker, we’ll put them in jail. But if it was someone else, we must keep it a secret. That’s how it works.”
I didn’t say anything. After a few seconds of silence, Hernadez spoke again.
“So, Gary, the clown. He’s the main attraction around here. I think he’s still here, so you can speak with him if you want.”
“Do you think he’s also a suspect?” I asked.
“Who knows? He might be. I always hated clowns, to be honest.”
As we were talking, an old man appeared from nowhere. He had gray hair and a mustache and wore a black suit.
“Officer Hernadez,” the man nodded to him, then looked at me. “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Mr. Carter, the owner, and manager of the Wonderland Circus. I’m here because of the unfortunate incident that happened a few hours ago.”
“I’m sure we’ll solve this case as soon as possible,” I reassured him.
“Look, I’m sorry about what happened with the victim,” Carter said, “but this investigation is bad for the business. I want you to end this by the end of the next day.”
“It isn’t that simple, sir,” I argued. “We are already working on solving the case, but…”
“Don’t worry, sir,” Hernadez looked at Carter. “We’ll close the investigation in no time.”
“Thank you, officer Hernadez,” Carter nodded, then walked back to his office. I looked at Hernadez.
“This guy is a piece of shit!”
“Hah,” Hernadez laughed. “He is. Anyway, looks like we have to be fast. Go and find that clown guy. I’ll talk with the rest of the staff.”
It took me half an hour to find Gary, the clown. I knew I had to be fast, and that Carter would probably give tons of money to the police station to close this case. Gary still had his colorful face painting when I talked to him. We were in the office building of the circus, at an employee only storage.
“What’s your real name?” I asked him. I watched his facial expressions.
“Gregor Williams,” he responded. His voice was a bit creepy, but maybe I was just scared because of his stupid face paint.
“Where were you when the murder happened?”
“In front of the audience, entertaining people. It’s my job, isn’t it?” he smiled a bit.
“How old are you?”
“34.”
“When did you start working here?”
“I was employed by Wonderland eleven years ago,” his eyes widened.
“So you must know the owners pretty well, then. What do you think about Mr. Carter?”
“Carter is a great boss, he pays everyone well. He founded Wonderland.”
As he was talking about Mr. Carter, I looked around the room we were in. It was full of shelves and kid toys, probably Gary’s accessories for the show. Then, there was a heavy steel door in the corner of the room.
“It’s the basement,” Gary said as he noticed I was looking at the door. “We keep the… heavier stuff there.”
“Can I take a look?” I asked. I found it strange that he tried to explain what was in the basement. Like he was trying to keep it secret.
“You can, but you won’t see anything, it’s fucking dark, and there’s no light, we have to replace our generator, unless God generates some kind of electricity there.”
“Are you religious?”
“I believe in a… rather unique god, Mr. Damford,” he smiled.
“Greg!” we heard a voice shouting from outside. “Your dog shat on the floor again, come here and clean it up, or the janitor will lock us out of the building again!”
“If you excuse me, I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Gary stood up from his chair, and left the storage room, closing the door behind him. I was left alone, and I glanced at the basement door again. We have to be fast, I remembered the words of Hernadez. I stood up and hurried towards the steel door leading to the basement. I slowly opened a door. It was dark. Luckily, I had a flashlight with me.
I walked down the stairs and quickly reached the bottom of it. The basement was large, full of spiderwebs. I felt my heart beating faster and faster as I noticed two human skeletons in the corner. They were real skeletons, I was sure. It was a circus, not a horror mansion.
I noticed a few strange symbols and blood on the walls, and things looking like torture devices from the middle ages. There was a sentence written with blood, The Supreme God sees us all.
“You are a curious human being, aren’t you, Mr. Damford?”
I jumped and looked back, seeing Gary, the clown behind me, along with the victim’s husband, Charles Casfield.
“We should sacrifice him to the Supreme God,” Charles said.
“The Supreme God prefers kid sacrifices. Do you have a kid, Mr. Damford?” Gary smiled at me with his stupid clown face, showing his yellow teeth.
“You are under arrest,” I pulled out my handgun, and pointed it at Gary while watching Charles in the corner of my eye.
“Let’s recruit Damford,” Gary shouted, and shadowy figures appeared behind me. I glanced back at them, sweating heavily. My hands started shaking, I almost dropped my gun. When did they got there, and how?
The stairs were blocked by Charles, and the dark figures started to get closer and closer. I panicked, and pointed my gun at Charles, then pulled the trigger. He shouted, but I didn’t have time to check on him, I had to run. I ran up the stairs, then left the building, trying to find Hernadez. He wasn’t there, so I jumped in my car and drove back to the police station. I was so stressed, I almost caused an accident on the road, but luckily, I managed to avoid it. I shouldn’t have driven in such circumstances, but I had no other choice.
When I arrived at the station, Hernadez was standing at the gates, smoking a cigarette. I ran to him as fast as I could.
“Officer Hernadez, they tried to kill me, the killers…”
“Calm down, Damford,” he responded with a calm voice. I was so angered by this. I could’ve died, and he was so calm… “I talked to Mr. Carter again a few minutes ago. The case is already closed. The victim wasn’t killed, she committed suicide.”
“What the fuck?” I shouted. “She was shot in the back, you saw it!”
“And you should be under arrest for attempted murder on Charles Casfield. The circus reported it. Since you are my longtime friend, I won’t arrest you right now. I’ll give you some friendly advice. Leave the country, now! If I see you again, I’ll have to arrest you. I hope you understand.”
“That’s bullshit, man, how much money did Carter give you?”
“He gave me nothing. Go now, I could get killed for letting you go! This is what you get for not accepting the way of the Supreme God, Damford.”
He then took my gun, turned back, and slowly walked back inside, leaving me there. I’m on a plane right now, moving out of the country. I lost my job, and I have no idea what to do.